ArsenalBio announced $325 million financing to advance cell therapy programs

DEALS AND FINANCING 

ArsenalBio announced $325 million financing to advance programmable cell therapy programs 

The funding round included new investors ARCH Venture Partners, Milky Way Investments Group, Regeneron Ventures, NVentures, Luma Group, funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, Rock Springs Capital, among others, with ongoing support from existing investors the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, Westlake Village BioPartners, Kleiner Perkins, Byers Capital, and Hitachi Ventures. Proceeds from the financing will be used to advance ArsenalBio’s lead programs through development as the company continues to build its pipeline of therapeutic candidates for solid tumor cancers based on its proprietary T cell engineering technology, including logic gating. The funds will also drive further innovation in developing tools and processes for identifying new candidate cell therapies, helping ArsenalBio remain at the forefront of the rapidly evolving field of cell therapy, and bringing it closer to its goal of addressing unmet needs across the oncology category. 

Nona entered into collaboration with Umoja to advance in vivo CAR-T cell therapies 

Nona Biosciences has entered into a multi-target antibody discovery collaboration with Umoja Biopharma. This collaboration leverages Nona's proprietary fully human heavy chain only antibody (HCAb) technology to produce novel in vivo generated CAR-T cell therapy drug candidates. Fully human HCAbs have the potential to significantly reduce immunogenicity and offer versatility in CAR design due to their compact size, simplified structure, and precisely calibrated binding properties. This partnership aims to combine Nona's HCAb Harbour Mice platform and direct CAR-function-based HCAb library screening platform (NonaCarFx) with Umoja's VivoVec platform to develop novel in vivo CAR-T cell therapies and expand the potential reach of this innovative delivery technology. 

Moderna and Carisma establish collaboration to develop in vivo engineered CAR-M for oncology 

Moderna and Carisma Therapeutics announced that the two companies have entered into a strategic collaboration agreement to discover, develop and commercialize in vivo engineered chimeric antigen receptor monocyte (CAR-M) therapeutics for the treatment of cancer. Carisma will receive a $45 million up-front cash payment and an investment by Moderna in the form of a $35 million convertible note. Carisma will receive research funding and is eligible to receive development, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments, plus royalties on net sales of any products that are commercialized under the agreement. Carisma will be responsible for the discovery and optimization of development candidates while Moderna will lead the clinical development and commercialization of therapeutics resulting from the agreement. Moderna has the option to nominate up to twelve targets for development and commercialization. 

Immatics to regain full rights to IMA401 due to ongoing portfolio prioritization efforts within BMS 

The collaboration between Immatics and BMS for the co-development of IMA401 has ended due to ongoing portfolio prioritization efforts within BMS. The existing collaboration and license agreement signed in 2021 will terminate effective December 12, 2024. Thereafter, all IMA401 development and commercialization rights will be reverted to Immatics. Immatics is not obligated to refund Bristol Myers Squibb any part of the $150 million upfront received under the collaboration and is not required to make any future milestone payments to Bristol Myers Squibb; the parties will engage in a wind-down period as stipulated under the collaboration agreement. Based on the terms of the agreement with BMS, Immatics has been responsible for conducting the ongoing Phase 1 clinical trial. Immatics intends to advance IMA401 further through clinical development. The next data update is expected in 2025.